In the closing days of campaign 2000, huge cheques - some as big as $1 million - are pouring into Democratic and Republican party coffers.
The latest fundraising reports, covering October 1st to 18th, show how labour unions, big corporations and wealthy individuals with a stake in the outcome of Tuesday's voting have been opening their wallets on an unprecedented scale.
During that period, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) collected eight contributions of $200,000 or more; the Republican National Committee (RNC) got five. More has come in since, although those cheques will not be reported until after the election.
Just last week, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) sent a $1 million cheque to the DNC, according to the union's political director, Mr Larry Scanlon.
That money comes on top of the union's $625,000 cheque to the DNC on October 16th and the $350,000 it sent recently to the Democrats' House and Senate campaign committees - bringing its total "soft money" contributions to the Democratic party for this election to $7.5 million, compared with $1.7 million four years ago, according to Mr Scanlon.
Hard money is that raised by presidential candidates to spend on their own "Vote Me" campaigns. It is subject to limits. Soft money is raised by the parties for their campaigns.
AFSCME is not alone. Overall, at least 20 companies, unions or individuals have contributed $1 million or more this election, twice as many as in 1996.
In the first few weeks of October a California entrepreneur, Mr Roland Arnall of Ameriquest Capital, gave $360,000 to the DNC, while a screenwriter, Stephen Bing, wrote two cheques totalling $385,000. The founder of Slimfast, Mr Daniel Abraham, who had already given more than $1 million to the Democrats, contributed $200,000 to the House Democrats' campaign, $100,000 to Senate Democrats and an additional $125,000 to Mrs Hillary Rodham Clinton's as soft money.
The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners came up with $1.1 million for the Democrats early last month, bringing the union's total contributions for the year to nearly $1.4 million, compared with $174,000 four years ago.
Republican donors have been equally generous. In all, the Republican National Committee has about 170 regents, individuals and companies who have given $250,000 or more to the RNC for this election.
Last month, Mr Tom Siebel, chief executive of Siebel Systems Inc of San Mateo, California, the world's leading supplier of e-Business application software, wrote a $500,000 cheque to the house Republican campaign committee - apparently his first federal political donation.
"It's one of the advantages of the booming economy," Mr Scanlon said. "Everybody's got money to spend. Unfortunately we are at a point in history where the broadcast media have a stranglehold on politics. They are charging incredible amounts of money, but that's the way you have to go to get your message out."
Some of the big donors are hard to track down. DNC officials declined to comment on the identity of a mysterious corporate donor that has given the party a total of $350,000 in two chunks this year.
FEC records show that Hogar LLC, with headquarters in a San Jose, California, office building, gave $250,000 to the DNC in September and $100,000 more in June. In an indication that the company's founders want to keep its operations a secret, the company's name does not appear in any news or other database except for its corporate formation papers in Delaware in February.
A DNC spokeswoman, Ms Jenny Backus, said: "We have vetted this donation, and we're very comfortable that it meets our standards." Another leading Democratic contributor, children's TV programming mogul Mr Haim Saban, said he told his friend, the house minority leader, Mr Dick Gephardt, a Missouri Democrat, that he was determined to be the top contributor to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. He ended up giving $500,001, including $250,001 last month.
"I thought I was number one until some guy, I don't remember his name, gave I believe $250,000 more than me," Mr Saban said in an interview. "I said to the leader [Mr Gephardt], `Look, when that guy's cheque clears the bank, please let me know. I have to do better' . . . I sent a $250,000 cheque, equal to the guy's, with a $1 bill attached. I hope this guy doesn't find out. He may send another $2."